"It is an honor to receive the Sloan Research Fellowship," Soares-Santos said. "Finding myself alongside the outstanding people who have been recognized over the years is what makes me most proud about this award."

Adam F. Falk, president of the foundation, described the Sloan fellows as "the best young scientists working today."

“Sloan Fellows stand out for their creativity, for their hard work, for the importance of the issues they tackle, and the energy and innovation with which they tackle them," he said in a statement. "To be a Sloan Fellow is to be in the vanguard of twenty-first-century science.”

The 126 fellows named this year also include Nikhil Agarwal '08, the Castle Krob Career Development Assistant Professor of Economic at MIT, who studies the the empirics of matching markets.

All the fellows receive a two-year, $70,000 fellowship to further their research. Funds may be spent in any way the fellow deems will best advance his or her work.

Candidates are nominated by their peers and winning fellows are selected by independent panels of senior scholars on the basis of a candidate’s research accomplishments, creativity, and potential to become a leader in his or her field.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic, not-for-profit grant-making institution based in New York.